PORK BARREL BABIES OF CONGRESS

In our Sunday paper there was a front page article about where the war money goes. This old cynic was completely astounded by the figures.

In 2003, $48.9 billion went to the military and $6.6 billion went to Reconstruction, Foreign assistance and Training. In 2004, $77.9 billion went to the military and $20.1 billion was used for RF&T. Now in 2005, we have $62.9 billion going to the military and $1.8 billion for RF&T.

My first thought, when I read these figures was Where in the hell is all the money for the military going? The administration certainly isn't breaking the budget providing proper equipment to our soldiers.

Most of the soldier's pay is accounted for in the regular budget(they are being paid whether they are in Iraq or Korea or here at home), so that shouldn't add anything additional cost to our Iraq "occupation". Certainly there are more bullets and bombs being used, but billions and billions of dollars worth? And still the tanks have no under armor.

Then tonight on "60 Minutes" I saw where some of this war money was going. It was going to Pork Barrel Projects of the Congress. While they are telling us to support the troops, they are bent over the war money trough and grabbing as much as they can without even a thought to the soldier overseas.

According to "60 Minutes", Congress routinely hides pet projects in defense bills and by law these cannot be cut from the bills.

So all this money that is needed to upgrade the equipment in Iraq is being spent by these flag-waving Congressional members for their projects such as: a biathlon jogging track in Alaska, a brown tree snake eradication program in Hawaii, a parade grounds maintenance contract for a military base closed many years ago and a Lewis and Clark Centennial Celebration. In Congress, it's Business as Usual.

I don't think that those pet projects are more important than providing our boys in Iraq with the proper equipment.

The California Curmudgeon